Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
We're social animals. People need social contact to be emotionally healthy. Real, face-to-face engagement, along with a sense of belonging.
There's pretty solid evidence that the increasing rates of depression and anxiety in our society are linked to social isolation. And men tend to be more isolated and more depressed than women. Men are also much more likely to be spend lots and lots of time playing videogames by themselves.
It's pretty dumb to say videogames themselves are bad for people. But playing them to excess, to the point of social isolation, is bad for individuals. And the fact many people (mostly men) are playing them to excess and to the point of social isolation is bad for society.
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Developing people
skills is a different thing than having enough contact for mental well-being. The initial point was that gamers don't develop people skls and as such are handicapped in real life. Which is a false stigma, a people skills are not really all that important at the first place and kids, who hang around together, don't develop people skills either. To develop people think one has to put in a focused and largely solitary effort of learning how human works and what you need to say in different situations.
Now when it comes to interactions just for mental well-being, isn't school enough for it? If anything, a kid, who is good at gaming, is going to be quite popular, as kids are actually talking about games a lot.
Then there is huge difference between online games and not online ones. Online gaming gives you not just communication, but even self-expression. Creating clans, recruiting members, discussing politics regarding other clans, sharing tricks, and driving your team forward are all activities which involve a lot of interactions and are arguably impossible to find without online gaming.